This invention relates to that class of devices used to open blood segment tubes as used by hospital blood banks and blood collection centers. Blood segments are short lengths of plastic tubing, sealed at each end, which contain a sample of whole human blood. An identification sticker is affixed to insure traceability. Medical laboratories routinely open blood segments to obtain a sample of blood, often in significant numbers and under time pressure.
The customary way of opening these segments is to cut them open with scissors and to use gauze to clean up the inevitable blood leakage. This leakage often results in glove contamination and work area contamination, the former of which necessitates disposal of the gloves, the latter of which necessitates extensive clean-up. After being opened, the segment is inserted into a test tube and is squeezed thereby forcing a few drops of blood into the tube for subsequent procedures.
Several devices now in use have been designed to alleviate the leakage problem and, in general, they do that very well. None, however, is capable of opening more than one segment at a time. There is, for example, a device called "HEMATYPE", patent pending by Medical Safety Products, Inc., Inglewood, Calif., which is identical in function, and only slightly different in form, from devices described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4176451 and 5254312. As will be noted, these devices are to be placed into the open end of a test tube and a blood segment is to be forced downward onto a piercing means which opens the segment. The segment is then to be squeezed thereby forcing a blood sample into the test tube. The device is then discarded. Another device called "SEGSAFE", being produced by Alpha Scientific Corporation of Malvern, Pa., is, in essence, a small plastic test tube with an integral piercing means. Again, a blood segment is forced downward onto the piercing means, the segment is squeezed, and a sample is taken. This sample is retained within the device and procedures are done therein rather than being done in a separate test tube. Unfortunately, it is of a cloudy color which tends to impede visual evaluation of the tube 's contents. This is, also, a throw-away item. U.S. Pat. No. 4399103 offers a different but somewhat cumbersome means of opening a blood segment.
Yet another very recent device, a machine called "SABER", patent originally applied for by SG Scientific, Inc. of Gainesville, Fla. is now being distributed by Gamma Biologicals, Inc. This machine is intended for long-term usage in that it contains an internal and integral means of cleaning the piercing needle. A segment is inserted into an opening in the machine, a plunger is pressed and released, and the segment is removed for processing. The machine is supposed to clean the needle. In this instance, placement of the identification sticker becomes important, sometimes necessitating removal and repositioning of the sticker. In any case, this machine, while not a disposable item, can open only one segment at a time and tends to produce some degree of blood leakage after several usages.
A disadvantage common to all the above described ways and means of opening segments is that much valuable technician time is lost in the simple mechanics of making an opening in a blood segment. The scissors method is by far the most prevalent and the most inefficient way of doing the job. The other means are certainly cleaner than the use of scissors but still they can open only one segment at a time when it is often needful to open ten or twenty segments as quickly as possible.
It is therefore an object of this invention to provide a machine and method to open cleanly, quickly, and simultaneously a plurality of blood segments. It is believed that, while this invention would have utility in any application requiring the opening of sealed plastic tubing segments containing fluid of any type, its greatest utility will be to blood bank laboratories.